55% of export companies say, “I don’t know RE100”…consider suspending transactions due to inability to respond

It was found that domestic export companies are actively receiving requests to use renewable energy from global companies such as BMW, Apple, and Google. However, it has been confirmed that some small and medium-sized businesses are unable to respond properly and are either suspending transactions or considering relocating their business to areas where renewable energy costs are lower.

As a result of a survey conducted by the Korea International Trade Association’s International Trade Research Institute on 610 manufacturing companies with export performance of more than $1 million on the 24th, one out of two export companies (54.8%) responded that they did not know about RE100 (100% use of renewable energy). . The companies that responded that they knew about RE100 were large corporations (62.5%), medium-sized companies (49.6%), and small and medium-sized companies (39.2%), with the ratio being higher the larger the company.

Unlike companies’ low awareness of RE100, the demand for implementation is gradually becoming a reality. It was found that 16.7% (103 companies) of the responding companies had experience receiving requests to implement RE100 as domestic and foreign trading companies. Among them, 41.7% responded that they are being pressured to use renewable energy starting this year or next year.

Although RE100 is attracting attention as an urgent task, small and medium-sized companies have found it difficult to respond. When asked to implement RE100 by business partners, 68.3% of small and medium-sized businesses responded that they would implement RE100, but 13.4% said they would look for other business partners (13.4%) or consider relocating their business to an area with lower renewable energy costs, such as overseas (9.5%). There was also. Some companies even responded that they would stop doing business with companies that requested it (3.6%).

On the other hand, 80% of large companies responded that they would implement RE100. No large company responded that it would stop doing business with companies that require the use of renewable energy. The Korea International Trade Association said, “The companies that responded that they would stop trading if asked to use renewable energy were small and medium-sized businesses with exports of less than $5 million, so it is necessary to prepare customized support measures for these companies.”

It was calculated that 14.6% of export companies are implementing RE100. The means of implementation were self-generation (49.4%), green premium (23.6%), and purchase of renewable energy certificates (18.0%).

Export manufacturing companies cited ‘cost burden’ as the biggest difficulty when implementing RE100. Accordingly, the largest number of companies, at 29.2%, chose ‘support for renewable energy purchase costs’ as a necessary policy task to support RE100 response. ‘Expansion of renewable energy supply’ (16.4%) and ‘Expansion of renewable energy power infrastructure’ (15.7%) followed.

Jang Hyeon-sook, head of the Green Transition Team at the Korea International Trade Association, said, “As global companies participating in RE100 are requesting partners in their supply chains to use renewable energy and submit information, renewable energy procurement and carbon emissions management are directly linked to export competitiveness.” She said, “We must strengthen policy support such as easing the interest rate burden, supporting loans and guarantees, deferring loan repayment and interest payments, and increasing tax deductions for investments.”